Origins of CAT -- CNRRA Air Transport -- CAT and civil war -- Siege of Taiyuan -- The Chennault Plan -- OPC and CAT -- The CIA buys an airline -- The Korean War -- Covert operations -- Managerial turmoil -- French Indochina -- A new regime -- Dienbienphu -- End of an era -- Conclusion -- Epilogue
Summary
Civil Air Transport (CAT), founded in China after World War II by Claire Chennault and Whiting Willauer, was initially a commercial carrier specializing in air freight. Its role quickly changed as CAT became first a paramilitary adjunct of the Nationalist Chinese Air Force, then the CIA's secret ""air force"" in Korea, then ""the most shot-at airline in the world"" in French Indochina, and eventually becoming reorganized as Air America at the height of the Vietnam War. William M. Leary's detailed operational history of CAT sets the story in the perspective of Asian and Cold War geopoliti
